Jeremiah 6; Jeremiah 7; Jeremiah 8

1"Flee for safety, people of Benjamin! Flee from Jerusalem! Sound the trumpet in Tekoa! Raise the signal over Beth Hakkerem! For disaster looms out of the north, even terrible destruction.2I will destroy the Daughter of Zion, so beautiful and delicate.3Shepherds with their flocks will come against her; they will pitch their tents around her, each tending his own portion."4"Prepare for battle against her! Arise, let us attack at noon! But, alas, the daylight is fading, and the shadows of evening grow long.5So arise, let us attack at night and destroy her fortresses!"6This is what the LORD Almighty says: "Cut down the trees and build siege ramps against Jerusalem. This city must be punished; it is filled with oppression.7As a well pours out its water, so she pours out her wickedness. Violence and destruction resound in her; her sickness and wounds are ever before me.8Take warning, O Jerusalem, or I will turn away from you and make your land desolate so no one can live in it."9This is what the LORD Almighty says: "Let them glean the remnant of Israel as thoroughly as a vine; pass your hand over the branches again, like one gathering grapes."10To whom can I speak and give warning? Who will listen to me? Their ears are closed so they cannot hear. The word of the LORD is offensive to them; they find no pleasure in it.11But I am full of the wrath of the LORD, and I cannot hold it in. "Pour it out on the children in the street and on the young men gathered together; both husband and wife will be caught in it, and the old, those weighed down with years.12Their houses will be turned over to others, together with their fields and their wives, when I stretch out my hand against those who live in the land," declares the LORD.13"From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit.14They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. 'Peace, peace,' they say, when there is no peace.15Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; they will be brought down when I punish them," says the LORD.16This is what the LORD says: "Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, 'We will not walk in it.'17I appointed watchmen over you and said, 'Listen to the sound of the trumpet!' But you said, 'We will not listen.'18Therefore hear, O nations; observe, O witnesses, what will happen to them.19Hear, O earth: I am bringing disaster on this people, the fruit of their schemes, because they have not listened to my words and have rejected my law.20What do I care about incense from Sheba or sweet calamus from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable; your sacrifices do not please me."21Therefore this is what the LORD says: "I will put obstacles before this people. Fathers and sons alike will stumble over them; neighbors and friends will perish."22This is what the LORD says: "Look, an army is coming from the land of the north; a great nation is being stirred up from the ends of the earth.23They are armed with bow and spear; they are cruel and show no mercy. They sound like the roaring sea as they ride on their horses; they come like men in battle formation to attack you, O Daughter of Zion."24We have heard reports about them, and our hands hang limp. Anguish has gripped us, pain like that of a woman in labor.25Do not go out to the fields or walk on the roads, for the enemy has a sword, and there is terror on every side.26O my people, put on sackcloth and roll in ashes; mourn with bitter wailing as for an only son, for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us.27"I have made you a tester of metals and my people the ore, that you may observe and test their ways.28They are all hardened rebels, going about to slander. They are bronze and iron; they all act corruptly.29The bellows blow fiercely to burn away the lead with fire, but the refining goes on in vain; the wicked are not purged out.30They are called rejected silver, because the LORD has rejected them."

1This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD:2"Stand at the gate of the LORD's house and there proclaim this message: " 'Hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the LORD.3This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place.4Do not trust in deceptive words and say, "This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD!"5If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly,6if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm,7then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your forefathers for ever and ever.8But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless.9" 'Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known,10and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, "We are safe"--safe to do all these detestable things?11Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the LORD.12" 'Go now to the place in Shiloh where I first made a dwelling for my Name, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel.13While you were doing all these things, declares the LORD, I spoke to you again and again, but you did not listen; I called you, but you did not answer.14Therefore, what I did to Shiloh I will now do to the house that bears my Name, the temple you trust in, the place I gave to you and your fathers.15I will thrust you from my presence, just as I did all your brothers, the people of Ephraim.'16"So do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them; do not plead with me, for I will not listen to you.17Do you not see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?18The children gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough and make cakes of bread for the Queen of Heaven. They pour out drink offerings to other gods to provoke me to anger.19But am I the one they are provoking? declares the LORD. Are they not rather harming themselves, to their own shame?20" 'Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: My anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, on man and beast, on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground, and it will burn and not be quenched.21" 'This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Go ahead, add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat yourselves!22For when I brought your forefathers out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices,23but I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in all the ways I command you, that it may go well with you.24But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts. They went backward and not forward.25From the time your forefathers left Egypt until now, day after day, again and again I sent you my servants the prophets.26But they did not listen to me or pay attention. They were stiff-necked and did more evil than their forefathers.'27"When you tell them all this, they will not listen to you; when you call to them, they will not answer.28Therefore say to them, 'This is the nation that has not obeyed the LORD its God or responded to correction. Truth has perished; it has vanished from their lips.29Cut off your hair and throw it away; take up a lament on the barren heights, for the LORD has rejected and abandoned this generation that is under his wrath.30" 'The people of Judah have done evil in my eyes, declares the LORD. They have set up their detestable idols in the house that bears my Name and have defiled it.31They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to burn their sons and daughters in the fire--something I did not command, nor did it enter my mind.32So beware, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when people will no longer call it Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter, for they will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room.33Then the carcasses of this people will become food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away.34I will bring an end to the sounds of joy and gladness and to the voices of bride and bridegroom in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, for the land will become desolate.

1" 'At that time, declares the LORD, the bones of the kings and officials of Judah, the bones of the priests and prophets, and the bones of the people of Jerusalem will be removed from their graves.2They will be exposed to the sun and the moon and all the stars of the heavens, which they have loved and served and which they have followed and consulted and worshiped. They will not be gathered up or buried, but will be like refuse lying on the ground.3Wherever I banish them, all the survivors of this evil nation will prefer death to life, declares the LORD Almighty.'4"Say to them, 'This is what the LORD says: " 'When men fall down, do they not get up? When a man turns away, does he not return?5Why then have these people turned away? Why does Jerusalem always turn away? They cling to deceit; they refuse to return.6I have listened attentively, but they do not say what is right. No one repents of his wickedness, saying, "What have I done?" Each pursues his own course like a horse charging into battle.7Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons, and the dove, the swift and the thrush observe the time of their migration. But my people do not know the requirements of the LORD.8" 'How can you say, "We are wise, for we have the law of the LORD," when actually the lying pen of the scribes has handled it falsely?9The wise will be put to shame; they will be dismayed and trapped. Since they have rejected the word of the LORD, what kind of wisdom do they have?10Therefore I will give their wives to other men and their fields to new owners. From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit.11They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. "Peace, peace," they say, when there is no peace.12Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; they will be brought down when they are punished, says the LORD.13" 'I will take away their harvest, declares the LORD. There will be no grapes on the vine. There will be no figs on the tree, and their leaves will wither. What I have given them will be taken from them. ' "14"Why are we sitting here? Gather together! Let us flee to the fortified cities and perish there! For the LORD our God has doomed us to perish and given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against him.15We hoped for peace but no good has come, for a time of healing but there was only terror.16The snorting of the enemy's horses is heard from Dan; at the neighing of their stallions the whole land trembles. They have come to devour the land and everything in it, the city and all who live there."17"See, I will send venomous snakes among you, vipers that cannot be charmed, and they will bite you," declares the LORD.18O my Comforter in sorrow, my heart is faint within me.19Listen to the cry of my people from a land far away: "Is the LORD not in Zion? Is her King no longer there?" "Why have they provoked me to anger with their images, with their worthless foreign idols?"20"The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not saved."21Since my people are crushed, I am crushed; I mourn, and horror grips me.22Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people?